The city just two comfortable southwards bus hours along the not-so-stunning coastline of central Vietnam was as surprising to us as Hue. But this time in a positive way. At first we just went there to make "business", as Hoi An is commonly known as an El Dorado of tailors, but as soon as we set our first steps into the city we fell in love with her: Cute yellow-ish houses with pitched tile roof seam the narrow, cosy streets. Every once in a while the lineup of tailors, which display their colorful objects of proud in the open windows, is interrupted by a nice cafe, a handicraft shop or a guest house. And at night, the atmosphere of the UNESCO-protected city center is amplified by a countless number of lampoons and the ancient street lighting. There were even some bars that could have been easily situated in Berlin or London.
So we ended up staying more then the 2 days we aimed for. In fact, we had to stay there longer, if we wanted or not, because what should have been just 3 neat suits at the beginning ended up as 2 big boxes of clothing sent home per mail. The Austrian customs officers will recieve a big Christmas bonus next year with all the tax fines we'll have to pay...
Looking back, it wouldn't be overly exaggerated to say that we have tried every second tailor in Hoi An - and there are lots of them. Our clear-cut favorite at the end was Mr. Xe! Not only because of his seductive shop attendants that were up to every trick, or because of his habit of slapping our butts (amicably) when taking measure, but also because of his queer style, his honesty and undeniable skills. (And at the end of our 5-day-stay we had learned our lesson and could tell which tailor was really a tailor and not just some former fisherman who was tired of sewing holes in his nets)
Mr. Xe doing his thing
To kill time while we waited for our clothing, we once went on an organized field trip to the ruins of the ancient Cham city My Son. After backpacking for a while and doing most things individually, it was kind of a cultural shock for us to be told where to go and even what to take a photo of. But our over-enthusiastic tour guide and leader of our proud "Tiger grouff" (sic) made up for all the distress we had to endure.
What I learned from this trip? Firstly, that the ancient Cham used honeybees to connect their tiles (?!) and secondly, that everything bad that has ever happened to archeology was caused by...THE FRENCHHHHH!
See us being measured at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephan_mittas/sets/72157612311802822/
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